I have two rows of 4 RGB Led's. The anodes are powered with P-Fet's and go through the TLC5940. I looked at the sample library but it pretty much just confused me. I believe what is suppose to happen is that the Led's are suppose to but turned on and off very quickly so that your eyes cannot detect it and to minimize the amount of power it would take when all of them are on. Can someone point me at a link or just assist me on how I can control this small matrix with the TLC5940 multiplexed. I have searched and came across a few things but all of them are a lot more complex. I prefer to start simple and add up. Please let me know if you can assist me. Thank you in advance.

elemeno

I've got everything hooked up, but was hoping someone could double-check my work before I blow something up.

In particular I'm worried about a few things:1) I'm not sure I wired the decoupling capacitors correctly2) Im not sure I wired the FETs correctly3) I connected the 5940's together as per the playground article* which seems to differ slightly from Grumpy Mike's schematic †.4) I used open digital pins to add in the extra rows of LEDs/fets. The pins in Grumpy Mikes schematic seemed pretty particular and some out of order so I'm worried I'm missing something here.5) The Arduinome_4X4_RGB.pde fails to compile (error: 'PD6' was not declared in this scope)

Note: Ignore the IR LEDs and photoresistors since I don't have those hooked up yet. Also ignore the scribbles on the breadboard. They were there when I bought it from a scrap house and won't come off.

EDIT: Also, I know the LED's aren't connected to the 5940's yet, but will connect up by color (RGB) to the three chips.

I connected the 5940's together as per the playground article* which seems to differ slightly from Grumpy Mike's schematic

My schematic uses a modified early version of the TLC5940 library which is what I based my code on. The "official" library changed some of the pins, there pins have fixed hardware functions so it is not a simple matter to change them. So you must use my wiring with my code or the other wiring with the other code, you can't mix them.

elemeno

I'm getting very close! The code complied and some of the LED's are firing, but are very weak. I think it's because there's not enough power. The schematic calls for +5v on pin 19, pin 21 and the FETs. I noticed the schematic says "+5v DC Prog" on pin 19. Does that mean I should be using a separate power supply there?